Thursday, April 21, 2016

Emma Laroux's a fallen Southern beauty queen whose past is barely whispered about in her small town. But the secrets and lies surrounding the scandal from long ago still haunt her, and something about Matthew Pope holds the answers. If only she could put her finger on it…

Matthew Pope wonders what awful karmic thing he’d done to land him in Podunk, Alabama. But when he sees Emma again after all this time, he knows he's still the only one that holds the key to unlock the truth of her past...

Will a shared moment in time ten years ago threaten what might be the best thing that’s ever happen to either of them—each other?

Emma pulled up
behind Matthew’s car and frowned, noticing that his taillight was busted. She
got out and pulled the bag of items from the back seat, not giving his car much
more thought.

Knocking gently on
the door, she figured she would leave the bag on the front step if he didn’t
answer. He might be sleeping. But what if he’d gotten light-headed, fallen, and
hit his head on the bathtub and was knocked-out cold, lying in a pool of his
own blood? The thought, while mildly ridiculous, gave her just enough pause to
knock again, this time more loudly.

No answer.She rang the bell.No answer.Now she was concerned.
His car was in the drive. He was definitely home. Her heart began to beat in
her

ears.She tried the door.Locked. She looked through the leaded glass front door. No movement.
Nice house.She knocked again.Emma still had the bag in her arm. So, she carried
it with her around the back of the house to the screened in porch. The screen
door was open, so she stepped up onto the pretty porch with the comfy
furniture. It appeared that Matthew spent time out here. There were pillows, a
rug, a throw, a couple books, and a lamp. Nice.

She knocked on the
back door. No answer. She didn’t see anyone inside.She bit her lip and tried the door. It opened.
“Hello? Matthew?”No answer. She moved
inside and let her gaze wander around the room. It was cozy and well decorated
for a guy’s place. She noticed the kitchen to the right and headed in that
direction. She put her bag on the kitchen counter then headed toward what she
knew must be the master bedroom. This house was similar in style to hers.

She called out to
him again. Emma was getting worried now. Why didn’t he answer?

As she entered the
bedroom, she noticed it the blinds were closed and it was rather dark, but she
could see no one was in the bed. Then, she realized the shower was running.
Against any kind of decent judgment, she moved toward the bathroom door. She
couldn’t help herself; she peeked inside. He wasn’t standing in the shower; he
was sitting on the floor. She panicked and rushed towards him before her brain
informed her to actually speak his name.

She pulled open the
door, certain he was dead before she shrieked, “Matthew, open your damned
eyes!” He did. Open his damned eyes. Opened them really wide. “Emma? Why are
you in my shower stall?”

She really didn’t
have a great answer to that. “Oh, Lord. I thought you were dead.” It was the
best she could do.

He did look nearly
dead. He smiled weakly. “I’ve been really sick, so I thought I’d sit here for
little while. But I’m not dead. So, um, could you hand me a towel? Unless, of
course, you prefer a shower?”

Emma then became
acutely aware of her position. And his. He was naked. Oh, Lord, was he naked. The most delicious naked she’d ever seen. And now
she couldn’t stop staring at his naked. And apparently his naked knew it now.
Because it was staring straight up at
her, too.

“Emma—a towel?
Because I’m a little more inclined to invite you into my shower now.”

She raised her eyes
beyond his naked to his eyes, horrified. “Uh, a towel. Sure.” Looking around, she
grabbed the closest towel she could find, the one hanging on a hook beside the
shower. “I thought you were dead,” she said again, as an explanation.

She was a complete
idiot. And now she wanted to jump his sick bones.

Just as quickly as
she heard him turn the water off, he all but shoved her out of his way to get
to the toilet and throw up. That was enough motivation for Emma to snap out of
it and get the hell out of sick, naked Matthew’s bathroom.

While he was
getting his clothes on, she did the same things she’d done for Cammie. After
everything had been sanitized, she brought in a tray with saltines and ginger
ale. She found him lying weakly in his bed wishing for death to take him.

“I’m sorry I
invaded your privacy. Cammie asked me to come check on you. She’s sick and
wondered if you’d come down with the virus, too. When you didn’t answer, I
thought maybe you’d had an accident.”

He opened one eye.
“That’s a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?”

She grinned.
“Probably. But I’m known for my dramatic flair on occasion. I’m artistic, in
case you haven’t heard.” She straightened his bed like she’d done for her
sister.

“Are you mothering
me?” he asked.

“My mother always
said you feel better when your bed isn’t a mess.”

“She’s right.
Thanks. Sorry you had to—see that.”

“That’s okay. It’s
nothing I haven’t seen before.” She swished her hand as if waving his words
away.

“Not that. I meant,
the throwing up part. I don’t think anyone has seen me bare-assed, hanging over
a toilet before. It’s not very manly.”

“I have an aversion
to vomit, so I excused myself from the room as soon as I knew what was
happening.

Don’t worry, still
manly.” She envisioned the other manly part and kept her opinion of that to
herself. Holy moly, every bit of him was manly. It was all burned into her
brain permanently.

“I’ve brought
saltines, Gatorade, chicken broth, and ginger ale. Call me if you need
anything. If it’s a twenty-four hour bug, you should be fine in the morning.”

“Emma, thanks
again. I appreciate your looking out for me.”

“We really need to
find you some friends in town.” She smiled and left the room.Her legs were shaky. She could never look at him
the same way again—not without mentally undressing him, knowing what lay
beneath. She drew another unsteady breath.

Susan Sands grew up in a small Northwest Louisiana town, where the seeds for future stories were inspired. Her lifelong love of reading motivated her to finally begin writing as her midlife crisis at age forty—better than a boyfriend or red sports car, according to her husband.

Susan lives with her dentist husband and three nearly-grown children in Johns Creek, GA.